Described herein are hand-held controller, system, and method for providing real-time sensations of temperature and/or hardness-softness to the hand-held controller. The hand-held controller comprises a first region configured to be touched by a user and to provide a real-time computer programmable hardness-softness sensation to the user in response to a first trigger signal generated by an interactive program; and a first mechanism, coupled to the first region, to cause the first region to harden relative to a first state, and to cause the first region to soften relative to a second state.